This Week in WCIW #50

Welcome to the semicentennial edition of This Week in WCIW, the weekly newsletter from Where Can I Watch – covering the latest news on where TV shows and movies will be available in Canada – for the week of December 20, 2021.

There is some news this week about shows like The Ipcress File and some additional shows coming to the Canadian broadcast networks – but the news is continuing to slow as we move further into the holiday season.

But first, some housekeeping: barring significant news, there won't be a regular newsletter for the next couple of Mondays. However, we are planning to send out our streaming and TV programming guide for January just before the end of the month, so watch your inbox for that.

Programming news

• A few more Canadian channels are announcing programming plans for the winter months. Arguably the most substantial release was from CTV, which announced pickups for reality series Next Level Chef (premieres Sunday Jan. 2, Wednesdays thereafter); Judge Steve Harvey (Tuesdays starting Jan. 4); and Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer (Thursdays starting Jan. 6), while confirming simulcast details for previously-announced series like Pivoting and The Cleaning Lady.
   
  In daytime, with Sony's The Dr. Oz Show ending its run on January 14 due to the host's political ambitions, CTV said it would air its food-based spin-off / replacement The Good Dish starting the following week. We're not sure how well that sort of format will work as a lead-in for local news (CTV aired Oz, and will air Dish, at 4:00 p.m. in Ontario, nominally for simsub purposes even that may only apply in some non-GTA parts of the province), but it's not clear that the network had a good alternative on short notice.
   
• Global has made a similar announcement about its winter programming, but there are no real surprises regarding new series, as that network had already announced pickups for Good Sam, Women of the Movement, and Abbott Elementary (which technically debuted a couple of weeks ago).
   
  Another Corus channel, HGTV Canada, has announced several new and returning series premiering in late December and in January, including the second season of Newfoundland-set Rock Solid Builds on Thursday, January 27.
   
• Per a promo that aired on Crave's linear channels this weekend, Warner Bros. film The Many Saints of Newark (the prequel to The Sopranos which arrived in theatres on October 1) will premiere on linear on Saturday, January 8, which usually means it'll be streaming on the 7th – barely ninety days after its theatrical premiere, for an even shorter window compared to other recent WB films.
   
  While certainly not definitive, it's a good sign that Crave could be following HBO Max into 45-day streaming release timing for 2022 WB theatrical releases, as has been definitively confirmed for Europe, and basically confirmed for the U.S.
   
• AMC+ has purchased premiere streaming rights in both the U.S. and Canada to British spy thriller The Ipcress File from ITV Studios. The six-part series, which has yet to air on ITV in the UK, will premiere on AMC+ in spring 2022.
   
• Super Channel, which has added several new docuseries over the past several months, has picked up four more from Canadian producers Go Button Media, including The Animal Within (debuting tonight, December 20), Colossal Machines (debuts January 3), Mysteries of the Ancient Dead (debuting later in 2022), and Secret Societies: In the Shadows (also coming in 2022).
   
• BritBox has also announced its winter programming slate which, in addition to several originals, will include the long-running BBC One daytime soap Doctors, available within hours of its UK release beginning January 21.

Recent updates on WCIW

We've made a couple of minor updates to our December guide, mostly to update and clarify the nature of some programs that we didn't have much information about before. We've also made some overdue updates to the data for some films in our movie streaming rights database for paid subscribers.

Thanks for reading – we greatly appreciate your support. If you like this newsletter, please consider forwarding to a friend who might be interested, or if you're in a position to do so, support our hosting costs with a paid subscription, which includes access to our movie streaming rights database, or on a one-time basis via our Buy Me a Coffee page.

If you're new to This Week in WCIW, you can catch up on past editions here, and sign up to receive future editions on our website at https://www.wherecaniwatch.ca/newsletter/. Or, if you're reading this on the web, you can use the form directly below.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays for those who are celebrating. We'll see you again soon.